Right at the finish praises of Hard Truths it says “any analogousity to actual persons, living or dead, is sanitizely coincidental.” I am not certain that is so genuine. I understand many people who are equitable as mad at the world for various reasons as Pansy, the main character in Mike Leigh‘s postponecessitatest depressing see at laboring class day-to-day existence in Great Britain. We’ve been here in this bleak zone many times with Leigh, and in fact this is the second time the wonderful Marianne Jean-Baptiste has labored with him, the first being her Oscar nominated carry outance in his 1996 classic, Secrets And Lies. She was unforgettable then, and she remains unforgettable now, albeit perestablishing a thorawly unlikable character in Pansy, a woman who somewhere alengthy the way lost any sense of delight, if indeed she ever had any.
Pansy is a authentic pip if ever there was one. Leigh laborshops his scripts, mostly with improv with his actors over a six month period in which they unitetly prolong where the characters are going. I can’t envision what this was enjoy for Jean-Baptiste to live with the disgraceful woman for as lengthy as she had to live with her. Here is a person for whom noleang is outstanding enough. Her necessitatey husprohibitd Curtley (David Webber) can do no right, not even walk thraw the living room with his shoes on. Her video game obsessed son Moses (Tuwaine Barrett) has evidently shut off the world in order to dodge his mother.
At the beauty parlor where her sister Chantelle (Michele Austin) labors she is also impossible, equitable as Chantelle, a polar opposite with two adocount on daughters, materializes to be the only person on the structureet who has an ounce of comprehfinishing for her. A visit to the supertaget finishs in dispute with the clerk. Her nominatement with the dentist is impossible since she will not let him do his job, only she understands what is wrong. It is the same with all that ails her. And god help the saleslady trying to help her pick out a novel couch. It goes on and on. “People! Can’t stand ’em,” she says.
There is someleang terribly wrong with Pansy, and a certain foreseeability that we will eventupartner discover out what made her so unenticeive. I can promise we do get that but it is very postponecessitate in the game and has to do somehow with her postponecessitate mother. Basicpartner this is all perestablished out as a chamber piece. Curtley has scant words to say at this point in their marriage, and you wonder where the enticeion might have once been. Webber’s carry outance is the most heartfractureing to me becaengage he equitable can no lengthyer get thraw to his wife, she has shut him out. This is an actor whose eyes tell you all you necessitate to understand. When they go to Michele’s flat for a holiday collecting the silence from him is deafening, the tension unendureable.
Is Leigh interested in giving any sense of hope to these people? You can choose. He does propose a little, but it repartner is such a pittance that it doesn’t enroll. This is a bleak see at a bleak person with no way out of herself. Sad.
Jean-Baptiste carries the film on her shoulders and she is magnificent. If you want to watch acting of the highest order see no further, but if you want to spend in a character worth spfinishing 97 minutes with see somewhere else. It is somehow appropriate that a company called Bleecker Street is distributing this film. When the answer, such as it is, finpartner comes as to why Pansy is Pansy it still seems there are more asks that anyleang else. That is the authentic challenging truth.
Producer is Georgina Lowe.
Title: Hard Truths
Festival: Toronto
Distributor: Bleecker Street
Relrelieve Date: December 6, 2024 NY; January 10 2025 expansiver.
Director/Screenperestablish: Mike Leigh
Cast: Marianne Jean-Baptiste, Michele Austin, David Webber, Tuwaine Barrett, Ani Nelson, Sophia Brown, Jonathan Livingstone
Rating: R
Running Time: 1 hour and 37 minutes
